# Friend of a Friend



## dHUTCH (May 1, 2007)

Friend of a friend got these in the mail the other day  Oh and he opened up some resting partagas shorts/rascc to find they were plooming nicely!


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## drew_goring-cl (May 26, 2007)

Hard to tell from the pictures, but I am sorry to tell you that the plume looks a lot like mold.


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## dHUTCH (May 1, 2007)

thats what we thought at first.....but we triple checked to make sure it wasnt


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## bobaganoosh (Sep 20, 2007)

spectacular selection. hopefully he will be sharing with you.


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## dHUTCH (May 1, 2007)

the substance wipes off leaving nothing behind. doesnt have that sticky residuey feeling that mold has when u whipe it off. and its more spotty on the sticks that have it than a large area. and unlike mold this is perfectly white. most cigar molds are lil off colored.


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## chrisguinther (Mar 12, 2007)

That's an excellent array of Havanas. Have fun smoking those.


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## kass (May 16, 2007)

Nice!!


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## drew_goring-cl (May 26, 2007)

dHUTCH said:


> the substance wipes off leaving nothing behind. doesnt have that sticky residuey feeling that mold has when u whipe it off. and its more spotty on the sticks that have it than a large area. and unlike mold this is perfectly white. most cigar molds are lil off colored.


Mold usually wipes off easily. It can also be white, as well as a variety of other colors. Very rarely have I seen non-white colored mold on a cigar. I am not sure what sticky residue you are talking about, but I have never experienced that with mold on a cigar. Plume generally forms uniformly on the cigar, whereas mold will form patches as on your cigars.


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## louistogie (Jun 21, 2007)

Mold is fuzzy like spots on cigar,
and bloom/ploom is when the oil's 
on a cigars turn into crystals.
if you turn off the lights in a room and get a 
flash light and shine the flash light on them
you should get some sparkles coming off the cigars.


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## Shelby07 (May 1, 2007)

Hey D, I agree with Drew... it doesn't look like plume.

Get a magnifying glass and examine it. Mold will look fuzzy, plume will look like a hard crystalline bump.


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## dHUTCH (May 1, 2007)

well i just went ahead and whiped them down lightly with distilled water, and removed them from the rest of the cigar population for the time being. we shal see


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## Tha Criddler (Jul 26, 2007)

It's ploom.


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## dHUTCH (May 1, 2007)

its ploom, its not ploom! ugh.........i looked throughout the entire humi and found 4 other sticks n the complete opposite side of the humi with the same thing....4 anejos. nothing next to the anejos had anything n them, and same as the isom's. we shal see.....i took them all out the humi, whiped them down with distilled water and put them into a zip lock bag.....ill monitor their state for a week or so.....


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## tx_tuff (Jun 16, 2007)

Send them to me and I will test them for you brother.


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## Daniel D (Jun 22, 2007)

I'm with Drew, looks a bit like mold.. Although I hate thinking about it though cause those are some great looking smokes.


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## zion698 (Jul 13, 2007)

David I like the company you keep.:dribble:


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## drew_goring-cl (May 26, 2007)

dHUTCH said:


> well i just went ahead and whiped them down lightly with distilled water, and removed them from the rest of the cigar population for the time being. we shal see


Good call. That minor mold that is on them shouldn't affect the taste or be dangerous to your health, but if you left the spores on they could get out of control quickly and possibly spread to your other smokes.

Now on the topic of mold, have you checked under the cedar of your Anejos? In the past year I have had a bit of an issue with mold under there.

Just trying to help. Hellova pickup you have there. Beautiful looking smokes.


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## drew_goring-cl (May 26, 2007)

Tha Criddler said:


> It's ploom.


Just curious on what you are basing that on. There seems to be a lot of misinformation regarding bloom (plume) vs. mold.


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## Jonjonmacky (Oct 30, 2007)

either which way im jealous still.


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## dHUTCH (May 1, 2007)

these anejos didnt have cedar wraps on them


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## Tha Criddler (Jul 26, 2007)

Dude I've sold cigars for 9 years and that looks like every bit of ploom I've ever seen. Unless I've somehow been selling cigars where only one or two boxes of cigars were moldy in 50.


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## happy1 (Jun 29, 2007)

Dont give a shit about ploom or not damn they looked awful good


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## drew_goring-cl (May 26, 2007)

Tha Criddler said:


> Dude I've sold cigars for 9 years and that looks like every bit of ploom I've ever seen. Unless I've somehow been selling cigars where only one or two boxes of cigars were moldy in 50.


That's fine. I am just saying that IMO that is mold. In my experience as well, the shop owners that are local to me are fairly ignorant in bloom vs. mold. I saw a box of PAM Principes almost totally covered in fluffy white mold, and the owner tried to convince me that it was bloom.

Just curious. What would you consider this:


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## smokin_cgars87 (May 15, 2007)

wow those are georgous seeing the ploom on those stogies made my mouth water haha...if it wipes off its ploom if it doesn't its mold


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## Tha Criddler (Jul 26, 2007)

drew_goring said:


> That's fine. I am just saying that IMO that is mold. In my experience as well, the shop owners that are local to me are fairly ignorant in bloom vs. mold. I saw a box of PAM Principes almost totally covered in fluffy white mold, and the owner tried to convince me that it was bloom.
> 
> Just curious. What would you consider this:


Looks like mold to me.


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## drew_goring-cl (May 26, 2007)

smokin_cgars87 said:


> wow those are georgous seeing the ploom on those stogies made my mouth water haha...if it wipes off its ploom if it doesn't its mold


Again, more IMO mis-information. Bloom (plume) will wipe off, as will mold generally.


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## drew_goring-cl (May 26, 2007)

Tha Criddler said:


> Looks like mold to me.


Yup...it sure is.


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## Tha Criddler (Jul 26, 2007)

drew_goring said:


> Again, more IMO mis-information. Bloom (plume) will wipe off, as will mold generally.


FYI, I've seen dudes bring moldy cigars into the shop and just as an experiment we took a moist paper towel to them and in several cases the stuff wouldn't come off. In my experiences w/ bloom you can almost blow the stuff off. I've also notice it concentrated around the head of the cigar in many cases (but not all). Mold tends to be almost stringy in it's pattern and bloom tends to be spotty, like in the picture at the top. These are just things I've noticed in a near decade of anal retentive babysitting of the humidors at work.


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## smokin_cgars87 (May 15, 2007)

i worked at a B&M for almost 2 years the first time i saw ploom i had no clue what it was and started freaking out...then i asked my boss and he gave me a half A$$ explaination just like he did everything else


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## tobacmon (May 17, 2007)

All very good answers here and I'll take note and some Tasty Looking Smokes---Someone explain to me how can you hold on to smokes for the period of time it takes them to Bloom or Mold? I have some that are over a year old and no Bloom/Mold nothing - Now why not --I want some on my cigars . I pay just as much for my cigars!!! Ha! Ha!:biggrin:


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## bobbyg29-cl (Apr 21, 2007)

Not that I am an expert on this subject by any means but from the reading I have done:

Bloom/Plume = white, non crystalized, powdered-sugar dusting over entire cigar:



Mold=off-white/green, localized to specific locations, three-dimensional (comes up off cigar) and crystalized:



Therefore my conclusion would be mold too, especially if it looks similar to your Anejos which have been well-known to be moldy in recent years.


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## Dickson (Apr 27, 2007)

D,

I just received a selection similar to that!!!!! Small world. What happens if you moke a moldie cigar?


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## degarbie (Aug 12, 2007)

Bloom or mould, those are some damn nice sticks. Enjoy 'em 

Hehe, I was just thinking "Someone should get Rob in here, and settle this argument" - and what do you know, he posts.


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## Marlboro Cigars-cl (Feb 19, 2007)

Looks like mold, but nice haul anyhow.


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## smokem-cl (Aug 16, 2007)

Guys...if it's mold, you'll smell it. Nothing else in this world smells like mold!


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## ashauler (May 11, 2007)

Yep, I would agree with this, it jives with everything I have ever read/heard. Besides, isn't the presence of plume only an indication of the storage conditions the cigar has experienced and its age? I have had two cigars exhibit the plume characteristics below, and can honestly say I perceived no distinct improvement/change to the cigars profile having smoked many of them that had no plume.

Mold on the other hand has a noticeable and detrimental affect on the cigars flavor and I have no idea of the health ramifications if there are any, but have made the mold/plume decision mistake and smoked a cigar that, after lighting and taking some pulls....definitely had mold and not plume. ugh!!



bobbyg29 said:


> Not that I am an expert on this subject by any means but from the reading I have done:
> 
> Bloom/Plume = white, non crystalized, powdered-sugar dusting over entire cigar:
> 
> ...


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## cigarsmoka-cl (Jul 31, 2007)

If it's patchy it's mold for sure. Just wipe it off and smoke it up...Bloom is the crystallization of oils in the cigar though - usually constant RH and temp is the only way to get that. I have some cigars from the early 90s that look like the ones above (the Dimeola) - but mine is not is bloom - it's just really old, plus I know for a fact they weren't at constant RH and temp the whole time...


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## Chuffy (May 9, 2007)

I see tiny plumes on some of my cigars, brand new. When I say tiny, I mean tiny. I am nearsighted, so I can see things real good close up. I think my Punch maduros have plume, and I just got them a couple weeks ago.

Is this a plume thread now?

Nice bomb!


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## Chuffy (May 9, 2007)

Bloom plume ploom blume. Bloomin' plume!!


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## tx_tuff (Jun 16, 2007)

Damn david see what you started LOL


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## Shelby07 (May 1, 2007)

Hey David, Not to beat a dead horse, but those are nice sticks and I'd hate to see them ruined.

Here's an excerpt from the cigarnexus.com web site. These guys haven't kept up the site, but they seem knowledgable. Hope this helps.



> Q: My cigars have something on them. How can I tell if it is mold or bloom?
> 
> A: Bloom, also called plume, is a grey/white residual powder that is left from the cigar's essential oils drying on its surface, and is considered a very good sign that the proper aging is taking place. Not all cigars develop bloom, but those that are heavy in oils almost always do over time.
> 
> ...


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## Jughead (Apr 22, 2007)

You call it what you like, I'm calling it mold.


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## Bullybreed (Jun 25, 2007)

oh my dear lord so much mis-information here...so much


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## Webmeister (Jun 12, 2007)

Plume, mold, whatever... keep them segregated from the rest just in case. Great lookin smokes! And remember... what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.


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## Shelby07 (May 1, 2007)

Bullybreed said:


> oh my dear lord so much mis-information here...so much


How so, Joe?


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## Shelby07 (May 1, 2007)

Here's another tidbit from the Nat Sherman web site



> Q - My cigars have a white mold on them - what can I do?
> 
> A - Plain white vinegar. Dampen a soft cloth with some vinegar and wipe the cigar to remove the mold. The vinegar will dissipate and not linger on the cigars. While cigars will absorb many aromas and tastes, vinegar is not one of them.


Yeah, yeah, I know this thread has been totally jacked, but it's a confusing subject and deserves some discussion.


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## tx_tuff (Jun 16, 2007)

Ok I found it, here is a mold testing kit. Give it a shot!

www.moldorplumeyoudecide.com


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## drew_goring-cl (May 26, 2007)

Bullybreed said:


> oh my dear lord so much mis-information here...so much


It's one thing to point it out...but correcting it is another.


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## kass (May 16, 2007)

Damn, I've had a few sticks that have had mold on them. I brushed it off and figured because it wiped off easily that it was plume. 
How easily can the mold spread from cigar to cigar?
the cigars I'm talking about are in tubes. Is putting them in a ziplock in the cooler enough quarantine?


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## Bullybreed (Jun 25, 2007)

drew_goring said:


> It's one thing to point it out...but correcting it is another.


 IMO your 100% right


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## Bullybreed (Jun 25, 2007)

Shelby07 said:


> Here's another tidbit from the Nat Sherman web site
> 
> Yeah, yeah, I know this thread has been totally jacked, but it's a confusing subject and deserves some discussion.


it is jacked, this discussion should be under a diff thread, this is under the gallery thread for people to share pics its kinda rude when someone posts pics than has it scrutinized & hijacked by another topic, i agree it should be discussed more but on the right thread.


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## Shelby07 (May 1, 2007)

Bullybreed said:


> it is jacked, this discussion should be under a diff thread, this is under the gallery thread for people to share pics its kinda rude when someone posts pics than has it scrutinized & hijacked by another topic, i agree it should be discussed more but on the right thread.


I am not so sure. If the discussion was about mold and plume in general, I would have started another thread. This has turned into a discussion about these particular sticks. I'm not saying they aren't awesome, because they are. I just didn't want to see the mold spread to his other sticks. There seems to be a disagreement as to whether or not it is mold. If it's not, no worries. The steps D has taken should suffice. But if it is mold, then there is a definate possibility that spores still exist in the sticks he has not separated.

It appeared to me that you may have been able to identify some misinformation here. If you did, I thought it'd be proper for you to clarify your comment.


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## acharpe (Feb 4, 2007)

Here are some good links to look at. Thanks, Moki, for the info:

Plume:

http://www.vitolas.net/displayimage.php?pos=-446

Mold:

http://www.vitolas.net/displayimage.php?pos=-927
http://www.vitolas.net/displayimage.php?pos=-601

Hope this helps...I meant to post this early this morning. Looks like a lot of people have already posted.


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## tobacmon (May 17, 2007)

Where online can I purchase a Can or Bottle of some mold? I need some for my sticks--Very nice sticks by the way.

Smoke em if you got em!!!That's what I always say. WTF is wrong with me today???????


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## full count (Jun 25, 2007)

man what a great selection. does your friend of a friend need any more friends?


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## dHUTCH (May 1, 2007)

after watching them for 2 days...nothing has changed...no new white patches have started to form. i went ahead and whiped them down lightly with white vinegar also. ill keep them out of the stock for atleast 2 weeks and monitor their progress. i smoked one party short from that group on my way to houston and it tasted damn good. so if it was mold...it wasnt affecting the cigars taste yet!


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## Bullybreed (Jun 25, 2007)

tobacmon said:


> Where online can I purchase a Can or Bottle of some mold? I need some for my sticks--Very nice sticks by the way.
> 
> Smoke em if you got em!!!That's what I always say. WTF is wrong with me today???????


I am glad you have decided to join us on the gurkha side Paul my son, your vital essence will be combined with the collective.


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